I just expected less bullet spraying action. I think the bigger issue was that the whole drugs for powers RPG element thing was no longer directly thematically tied to the overall story line and setting. It was there simply because it was a bio shock game.
I remember being quite surprised at the reaction the game got vis a vis writing and story telling when it was first released. I didn’t get to it for a year or so and my reaction was very much that it was really just rehashing what had been done by many classic PC games. With an added political veneer. I replayed it when infinite came out. When there was much better thought out analysis of the game coming out. And it comes off much better sans hype.
What the game does that’s very clever, and actually new. Is underline it’s narrative with the game play. Pure free-market randian nonsense? Super powers you can buy. Free purchase of super powers leads to randian nightmare. And the player actively engages in that dynamic through the base mechanics of character advancement. The little sister big daddy thing, including the bits with the player character getting a bit more involved with that than expected. Isn’t really a usual moral choice mechanic. It’s a choice to act in an objectivist way or not. With consequences or benefits of each actively played out. The mechanics themselves do a far better. More subtle job of attacking randian politics than anything in the writing.
Infinite’s got none of that.
